Yes
You need to have less than about 130 ojects at the start of the level. You could try creating a device which produces more ships as time goes on, rather like the asteroid shooter to get round this problem. Other ways are to modify ships so that they do not use fighters or missiles.
You need to script the battle so that you never exceed a count of about 200 objects.
My plugs "It's War" Part 1 & "It's War" Part 2 (just released) each have levels in them which push the maximum number of ships to the limit.
I too like big battles!
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Oh, so it is another bug hunt then...